UNITED NATIONS, April 13 -- After the military coup in Fiji in late 2006, then-Secretary General Kofi Annan said that unless democracy was soon restored, the UN would stop using Fijian peacekeepers. More than two years later, not only has democracy not been restored, now according even to the UN the Constitution has been abrogated, the judiciary dismissed and elections put off for another five years. Current Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on April 10 expressed "deep dismay" at this, saying he "strongly deplores these steps."
On April 13, Inner City Press asked Mr. Ban's Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq is Ban's "deep dismay" means that finally Kofi Annan's threat, to stop using and paying for peacekeepers from Fiji will be implement. Haq responded that future use of troops from Fiji will be on a "case by case basis." Video here, from Minute 9:39.
But after the coup, the UN continued to rotate Fijian soldiers in and out of Iraq, and Haq admitted their numbers were not capped. Now even with Ban's stated "deep dismay," nothing is said to have changed. How deep is that dismay, again?
Late on November 28, 2006, after Inner City Press asked at that day's noon briefing about it, the UN issued a statement that "The Secretary-General also wishes to stress that further prolongation of the crisis may damage Fiji's international standing, which it has built carefully over the years, as an important contributor to UN peacekeeping operations and more recently as a member of the Peacebuilding Commission." If 29 months followed by suspension of elections for five more years is not "prolongation," what is?
And see, www.innercitypress.com/ban1fiji041309.html
